I have been interested in tropes lately. For those who do not know what I am talking about, let me explain what a trope is. The definition of "trope" is usually stated as a "figure of speech." In storytelling, a trope is just that  a conceptual figure of speech, a storytelling shorthand for a concept that the audience will recognize and understand instantly. Above all, a trope is a convention. It can be a plot trick, a setup, a narrative structure, a character type, a linguistic idiom., etc.

Totally Spies surely has lots of interesting examples of tropes. Why not using them to perform a classification for the spies ? Well... this is just the main objective of this thread. I decided to start with Clover, since she has an unusual behaviour. But I hope to do the same work for all characters.

The list below is still incomplete though. I will add more tropes later. Of course critics will always be welcome ! I really want to se your comments about the work.

Conventions -

Trope - It refers a trope used to classify the character and his/her personality.

Trope - Stands for a recurring trope.

QUOTE

Clover - Tropes Classification

Action Girl

Arch Enemy - Geraldine, and arguably Mandy. Sometimes she has a friendly rivalry with Sam.

Allergic to Routine - Clover usualy gets bored easily. Perhaps this may explain why she has a obcession with boys...

Ambition is Evil - Clover is a very good example for this trope. She usually tries to get famous. In fact, such a behavior is strongly explicited during the episode "Model Citizens" in which Clover and Mandy compete in a beauty contest. There are many other examples though.

Beauty Brains And Brawn - Clover, Sam and Alex.

Beserk Buttom - Don't dare to say that Clover uses clothes bougth in a liquidation. It never ends well... she doesn't like being turned down by a guy as well.

Blue Eyes - Duh... captain obvious !

Butt Monkey - Sometimes.

Clothing Damage - This happens A LOT to Clover. This is especially explored during "Attack Of The 50 Foot Mandy".

Corrupt The Cutie - This happens to Clover's intern, Tara, due to Clover's influence. She's not seen recovering.

Call To Agriculture - Well... she had to visit a farm during "Spies on the Farm", so this trope does count !

Cloudcuckoolander - Sometimes she gets lost in her dreams, specially during missions.

Crowning Moment Of Awesome - For Clover, Sam and Alex it's in the movie when they avoided being spotted by their principal Mrs. Strich Walk Like An Egyptian style.

Deadly Upgrade - Well... she becomes a super agent during "Super Agent Much ?". Do you want more ?

Depraved Bisexual - The fandom strongly deffends this theory.

Dumb Blonde - Sometimes.

Everything Sounds Sexier In French - Quite evident.

Family Unfriendly Aesop - One episode has Clover declaring that it's better to have a big head than to have a big everything else. How is an aesop about staying healthy and physically fit family unfriendly?

Go Karting With Bowser - This happens many times with Clover. For example, during the episodes "Sis-KaBOOM-Bah!" and "Evil Sorority" when she "fights" alongside with Mandy like... uh... best friends ?

Gratuitous French - Quite evident.

I Have You Now My Pretty - Happens to Clover way too many times to count...

Laser Guided Amnesia - Too many times to count.

Les Yay - Sometimes together with Sam. This shamelessly happens with Violet as well.

Lovable Sex Maniac - She is not an extreme example like a certain character from a recent anime by Gainax (Anarchy Panty), but she seems to have a natural tendency for love.

Only One Name - As far I know...

Rapunzel Hair - During the episode "Evil Hair Salon" Clover was captured and her hair was grown really long to be used as a wig. Unfortunately, it made her very weak. The other girls even used the hair Rapunzel style.

Rape Pillage And Burn - During the episode "Evil Sorority".

Shallow Love Interest - A lot of her Temporary Love Interests were this.

Shopaholic - Clover surely is the incarnation of this trope.

Spoiled Sweet - Yes, captain obvious !

Talks Like A Simile - Clover, from time to time.

Temporary Love Interest - Pratically every episode she has one...

The Mario - Clovers suits well here. She is strong, but not the strongest. She is smart, but not the smartest. In fact, even Jerry had problems to justify her presence in the team (during the episode "Like, So Totally Not Spies"). Of course, she is the balanced one after all !

The Fashionista - Quite obvious.

The Lancer

Tsundere - Type A, sometimes.

Valley Girl

Zerg Rush - Clover was leading the fandom of Ricky Mathis during the episode "A Thing For Musicians" in a very dangerous way. This trope is quite understandable.

I know this thread is outdated, but I am seriously thinking in resuming the previous work. Does anyone have interest to help me out? Is there anyone experienced with tropes? I have already checked out the TV Tropes character sheet for Totally Spies and it seems there is a well-established basis for the spies, but there is still much work to be done.

My plan is to start with a expanded version of Jerry's profile. Many tropes would have to be added. On the other hand, my memories concerning the previous seasons of TS are not that vivid anymore; honestly I don't have enough free time to watch the whole series again. That's why any help would surely be appreciated.

Of course I'm thinking in doing this work even if nobody wants to help. I'll try to publish a new profile within some days.

I revive this thread by mentionning then one of TS tropes,"fuel fetish", was featuring in a vlog posted on Youtube.

Ugh, while TS IS fetish fuel, I didn't really need to have to hear some postmodernist soyboy droning on about it for 15 minutes. Then like the last 5 minutes was a literal commercial for some shit he's hawking. Guess YouTube really cracked down on normal monetization to the point that we have to go back to the old time radio style "this is my sponsor" crap.

I also like how he went on 4chan /co/ (which is Tumblr now apparently) and trolled for (You)s to post in his fucking video. Chances are this guy is probably a total hypocrite or else he wouldn't be in a place like 4chan in the first place or know what stuff like Rule 63 is. Pretty sure if we went on his hard drive it's probably full of My Little Pony porn or something. Also his voice sounds like a combination of effeminate and drugged, like he was just pumped full of drugs and is about ready to pass out.

Overall, I like TS not being popular so this stuff kind of stays sort of hidden and thus fun for the fans like us. God knows I don't want Tumblrinas whining about how problematic TS is or people writing TS dissertations for some god awful gender studies class. God knows it was a miracle a show like TS was even made even back in the early 2000's. The unsanitized nature of TS is one of its biggest assets, and if people could maybe get real lives and chill the fuck out, it's certainly something that doesn't deserve that kind of scrutiny, the kind of scrutiny everything is placed under in the current horrendous climate for pointless politically correct "discourse."

He has an account here, but yeah I don't agree with the assessment at all. TS is laden with fanservice, subtext and innuendo of many different kinds. I think we were lucky to get this much in Totally Spies, because it gives a lot to the fans to have fun with. Other people may watch it and notice nothing, but that's the point of subtext. Cartoons have a lot of restrictions on content, and this was even more so the case in the early 2000's. If you don't care for it, it's easy to ignore, but saying it doesn't exist is kind of ridiculous imo. Overall, it's there for fun. It's just a cartoon (that came out over 16 years ago).

And that's the problem right now. Currently the United States, especially younger people, are going through something that can only be described as a moral panic that has been brought on by feminists, SJWs and other leftist types types that have changed the left from being about liberalism to being about morality. It's gotten to the point it's pretty much became the left's own evangelical movement like the one the right had with Christians 15 years ago. Everything must be put under a postmodernist microscope at times 200 power and dissected until everything is "problematic." TS got backlash from feminists when it came out due to the girls liking shopping and boys, but I can only imagine what would have happened if TS debuted now with every idiot on Twitter and Tumblr having a megaphone.

A lot of people haven't figured out things like feminism are more of a religion than something real (there's no patriarchy out to get you) and exist mostly as a scam to help ensure Marxists can find employment via academia. They may take these absurd criticisms seriously and try to pander to others by feeding into the ridiculous narratives that try to politicize things like cartoons that should never be taken seriously.

However, the correct answer is telling everyone to get a life and not take a cartoon so seriously. I don't think it's to argue there couldn't have possibly been under-currents in TS. In Japan, every show has these undercurrents, and no one has died over it. It's not a big deal if one western cartoon shares some of the fanservice tropes.

TSUG.net is a fan made website created in appreciation of Totally Spies. TSUG.net is not affiliated with the owners or creators of Totally Spies or its characters and settings. Totally Spies is owned by Marathon Animation Inc. This website was created just for informational purposes and for fun. This website has not been profited from in any way.